Later, after I had my wrapped salmon fillets from the fish market, I went to the nut shop to buy fresh pistachio meats. I was asking questions in slow Turkish about the various kinds of pistachios.

A Turkish man barged into the shop, shouted out his order, oblivious to the fact that I was ordering. The shopkeeper switched to the new, louder patron. "Men get waited on before women in Turkey, even if the woman was first?" I asked, after the man left.

"Maalesef (unfortunately)," the shopkeeper replied. I said 'no thank you' to placing my order with him and took my small request (1/4 kilo) to the shopkeeper's competitor across the street.

"Roasted pistachio nuts please," I ordered in Turkish. The man reached inside a heated drawer and scooped up the warm nuts into a paper bag for me. It was so satisfying to take my business there. I swear the pistachios tasted better for the lack of sexism!

9 comments:

I'm so glad you enjoyed the Uskadar Market! We lived in Uskadar for a month last summer and found the whole area to be charming and so 'old world.' It was like stepping back into time. Your posting made me feel homesick!

Wow! I actually never had that happen to me when we lived in Istanbul, but Uskudar is a much more conservative neighborhood. Generally, all the sellers were like "abla, buyrun" all the time. Good for standing your ground! :-) And the fish looks yummy!

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